Bionic Fantasy Part 3
Earth and Stone (地と石 Ji to Ishi) is the third segment of [[Bionic Fantasy|'Bionic Fantasy']]. Characters * Onewa * Whenua * Cloud Strife * Tifa Lockheart * Jikanmu Story Chapter 1 Whenua and Onewa tunneled through a dark, scary cave for seemingly hours, the former utilizing his Mask power of night vision to light the way, until they reached a wall of brimstone with barely needle-thin streaks of light coming out from the other side. "Hey, Whenua, you see that?" cried Onewa. "Yeah..." Whenua said, putting his drill-shovels together and struck the wall with all his strength. The air started to get warmer as the two Toa stepped out of the cave to behold the sight of Ta-Aka. A large castle, it's bricks made of solidified magma, stood out in the midst of the fiery ramparts. "Amazing. I'm almost surprised it hasn't completely broken down, considering the planet's condition." Onewa said. "Just give our new friends a minute to catch up." said Whenua. The two Toa were waiting patiently for two other travelers who provided cover as they dug through the tunnels. Surely enough, they walked out of the darkness into plain sight. One was a young woman wearing fighting gloves, with long black hair and a lovely figure to boot. She is called Tifa Lockheart, and right beside her was a man whose unusual hairstyle somehow defied the natural laws of physics, and carried a large broadsword attached to a magnet on the back of his uniform. He was Tifa's childhood friend and partner, Cloud Strife. He surveyed his surroundings with Tifa and the Toa, grasping the handle of his weapon, the Buster Sword, still hanging off his back, and pointed to the weathered castle. "Let's go!" he said. The four travelers navigated the burnt ramparts, fighting any Vahkshi that got in their way. Whenua was particularly impressed with Tifa's fighting skill, especially when she performed a suplex on a Vahkshi, breaking it's back on the ground. "I definitely gotta try that move sometime!" Whenua chuckled. Onewa swept the hordes of Vahkshi with his pitons, with hooks that could be used for climbing mountains, and Cloud held his own, cleaving a blue Vahkshi neatly in two with his sword. "Not gonna smile about that one." Tifa cartwheeled around a purple Vahkshi that tried to harm her with no success, plowed her fist through it's chassis, rupturing it's circuitry, and with a great explosion, and the battle was over. "Ok come on, let's go!" Tifa called out to the guys and they follow her. They search the town surrounding the castle to see if there are any survivors who can give some information on how to reach the castle and best Ta-Aka's Genjuu, the Efreet, which Jikanmu had already informed them about. Whenua goes into a half-burnt stable to see if anyone's there. "Hello?" Whenua called. No one answered. All he could find was an inscription that read, "Turn back now!" But Whenua didn't have it in him to ignore his duty. He just had to continue searching the town! "There's no one in there." he says grimly as he exits the stables. "So much destruction..." said Cloud as he came out of a destroyed house he'd just finished searching with no luck, "It's like Nibelheim all over again!" "What do you mean, Cloud?" Onewa asked. "Some years ago, me and Tifa's hometown was burnt down... by Sephiroth...!" "Whoa, spooky!" Whenua exclaimed with terror. He and the other Toa had never heard of Cloud's archenemy Sephiroth, or what atrocities the hero-turned-murderer was capable of, but they were right to fear him! "What is Sephiroth?" Onewa asked, trying to keep his cool. "He was a former member of SOLDIER, an elite military group that belonged to Shinra." Tifa answered, "When Sephiroth discovered that he was a product of their Jenova Project, he went mad and massacred many of the townspeople, including my father, and Cloud's mother. I can't stand to imagine what else he would've done if Cloud hadn't defeated him..." Later, the group finds a moat of boiling lava surrounding the castle, and Onewa uses his pitons to lower the drawbridge so they may pass. But just at the castle gates, a battalion of Vahkshi, one each of the main six elemental affinities, awaited to brutalize their guests! "Oh great!" Tifa groaned, "More of these creeps!" "But that won't discourage us!" Onewa spoke. "Let's give 'em a warm welcome, shall we?" Whenua shouted, "Onu-Metru style!!" Whenua charged right at the brown Vahkshi, boring a hole through it's torso with his drill, and Cloud went straight for the blue one, dodging it's thrusting attacks before bifurcating it. Tifa grabs the green Vahkshi and knees it in the jaw, doing a 180 degree corkscrew twist in the air while still hanging on to the robot's head, and then throws it into the fiery moat to burn in in the lava. Onewa thrusts his weapon at the white Vahkshi, wrapping the chain around it's right arm before yanking it right off, while Tifa performs an aerial windmill kick at the remaining two Vahkshi as they try to attack her from both sides. Onewa slams both his pitons onto the one armed Vahkshi, and finishes it with a flying stomp kick, and trips the last two enemies with a sweeping attack directed at their feet. The black Vahkshi gets back up, only to be Cross-Slashed to pieces by Cloud, while the red one is dealt a swift Waterkick by Tifa and sent flying into the wall, making an explosion on impact that leaves a hole big enough for the party to walk through. "Nice work, Tifa!" Onewa complemented the woman. "You weren't so bad yourself, Onewa." Tifa replied. "Now let's go inside and find this Genjuu!" Compared to the town, the castle interior didn't really look the worse for wear, but as soon as Cloud and the others got into the massive audience chamber, a trap door was set off, landing them in a cell. "Oh come on!" Whenua bellowed. A bit oddly enough, there are no skeletons or rotting corpses lying about, not that the others were complaining. "Take it easy, Whenua." Cloud told the Toa of Earth, "At least we're not in a sewer this time." Tifa kicks the door down and they make their way through the dungeon, past the basement, and back into the audience chamber. "Wait!" Onewa stops the group, and slides the chains of his pitons across the floor to see if there were any more traps around, mapping out the correct path for them to take before they reach the throne, where Cloud spots a statue of a leonid creature, perched like a gargoyle on a ledge above the throne. He had to assume it was the Efreet in an inanimate state, waiting to attack those who would disturb it's slumber. Based on that reasoning, Onewa considered using his Pitons to break the ledge off, bringing the statue down with it, shattering it to pieces in the process and possibly saving the party a grueling fight. "Are you sure this is a good idea?" Tifa asked Onewa. "I dunno, maybe," said the Toa of Stone, "but stay back just in case." Whenua and the humans stood a few paces back while Onewa swung his tools upward, wrapping the hooks around the ledge and pulled tight until he heard a crack from above, and a tiny piece of rubble from the ledge fell lightly on his head. Onewa moved away from the throne and rejoined his group just before the statue came crashing down to the floor level, but it did not break into pieces as Onewa had hoped. The statue was much tougher than it looked, and was completely unscathed. Yet the heroes stood their guard, as the eyes on the statue started to glow fiery red. "You still think this was a good idea, Onewa?" Cloud asked. Slowly, the statue came to life, and let out a terrifying roar as flames danced around it's imposing figure. It was the Efreet, and it was boiling over with rage! "Here it comes!" Whenua yelled out, and the Efreet dashed toward the Toa of Earth to swat him and Tifa into the pillars inside the room. Onewa wrapped his piton hooks around the Genjuu's horns and tries to pull them off as Cloud unleashes a Blade Beam at it. Whenua recovers and leaps at the Efreet from behind, plunging his drills into it's back to try and weaken it. Onewa wraps the chains on his pitons around an undamaged pillar to pull the Efreet right into it, smashing the pillar into huge chunks of rock. Whenua barely managed to chip off a piece of the Efreet's hardened skin before it threw him off it's back, but Onewa picks up a chunk of the destroyed pillar and throws it in the Genjuu's direction, striking it in the head. Whenua hoists up another chunk of pillar and swings it at the beast, though it counters with a backhand strike which breaks off a huge piece, sending it flying towards Tifa. Luckily, Cloud was quick enough to jump in front of her and slash the debris in two before it can crush her. "Thanks again!" said Tifa as she got back up to rejoin the fight, executing a flying kick at her opponent. While the Efreet was momentarily disoriented, Onewa hooked his weapon onto it's left foot and pulled with all his might, making the fiery beast fall onto it's side. Whenua faced the creature even as it tried to crush him under it's hand, but the Toa grabbed onto it and pushed back. Seeing his chance, Cloud used his Climhazzard move on Efreet, ending the fight on his group's terms. But there were still seven more Genjuu left, as far as Cloud knew. "So where to now?" Whenua asked Cloud. "Jikanmu said there's supposed to be a chamber inside this castle that we can use to get to Ina-Kiiro." the man said. "Well it's not like it's just gonna appear in front of us, is it?" Tifa spoke. She suggested that the group start wall-hugging, a tactic used more often than not by Warriors of Light to find secret passages in what appear to be dead ends. It wasn't long before Cloud finds a secret passage behind the throne and leads the others into a room with a shrine that could take them to any region on Ankoku Nui. But bearing Jikanmu's instructions in mind, Cloud sets the coordinates on a nearby console to Ina-Kiiro, and the group is taken there in a flash of light, to rendezvous with Jikanmu. Chapter 2 According to Jikanmu, Ina-Kiiro is, or at least was the most technologically advanced of Ankoku Nui's eight regions. But the dark forces that ravage the planet have caused the area to be bombarded with lightning and thunder. Ordinarily, the denizens, if any, would be allowed safe passage, thanks to the towering lightning rods that attract stray bolts to keep them from zapping passerbys, but those rods are damaged so badly, they don't work as consistently as they should, so traversing Ina-Kiiro would still prove risky at best and lethal at worst. The party had to make frequent stops at whatever lightning rods popped up in their view, hoping there weren't any Vahkshi around to give them more trouble. If lightning struck in their direction, Cloud and the others had to be precise in their timing to dodge it. Fortunately, Jikanmu's powers made it easier to see the bolts coming and back away safely. "Cloud, move!" Jikanmu commanded, generating a slow time field to give Cloud more than enough time to dodge. "Don't expect any more freebies. The Mask of Time's power is not as great as you're probably thinking." If the Vahi's power was made infinite through it's established connection to Jikanmu's Chronoscepter, he'd use it to keep the thunder from striking everybody all the way, but Jikanmu won't, even if he wanted to. Further along the treacherous path, the party finally found perhaps the only lightning rod that still works, only it was being attacked by four Vahkshi, one red, one blue, one yellow, and the last one green. "We gotta stop these things before they wreck that tower!" said Onewa. Whenua charges toward the blue Vahkshi and grabs it by the throat, performing a chokeslam and then getting down on all fours to drag it across the ground. The green Vahkshi kicks at Tifa, who catches it's foot before it could connect and twists it's leg, before jumping onto it and pounding it's face to scrap. Before Onewa could strike the yellow Vahshi with is pitons, a pair of compressed mechanical wings grow out of it's back and it flies up out of the Toa of Stone's reach to fire lightning at him. "Really starting to wish Vakama was here!" Onewa said as he dodged the blasts, but then he thought critically for a moment; if this yellow Vahkshi can sprout wings, perhaps all the others can! Onewa used his mask power to peer into the red Vahkshi's AI, and commanded it to take flight in pursuit of it's yellow colored brethren, allowing Cloud and Jikanmu to make it to the lightning rod. Jikanmu uses his time reversal to undo the damages while Cloud kept his eyes peeled for reinforcements. The blue Vahkshi got back up on it's feet and thrusts it's blade towards Whenua, who seizes it in his and hand snaps it like a twig. "That puny weapon alone won't work on me!" Whenua shouted in the robot's face before lifting it up to perform an airplane spin, just as a stray bolt was about to strike him. Whenua couldn't notice it, but luckily, the Vahkshi served as a shield while he spun it around and then does a piledriver onto the ground, reducing the electrocuted menace to scrap. Still controlling the red Vahkshi, Onewa commanded it to unleash a blast of fire, and the yellow one tried to counter it with thunder, triggering an explosion that destroys them both. By that time, the lightning tower was up and running again as it should. The metallic grounds of Ina-Kiiro were safer now, if marginally. "Nice moves, Whenua!" Tifa complemented the Toa of Earth, and they bumped fists. "Heh, you weren't half bad yourself, Tifa." he says. The party continued their perilous trek until they come across a sight that Cloud and Tifa found all too disturbingly familiar. "It can't be...!" Cloud said in disbelief. "What's a Mako Reactor doing all the way out here?" Tifa wondered. "No one's supposed to be using them again after Meteorfall!" "This is the work of Dai-Shinra!" Jikanmu answered. Dai-Shinra!? Is that a new incarnation of the Shinra Corporation, Cloud thought nervously. If so, then how could they? And how does Jikanmu even know of Shinra anyway? "A sect of the old Shinra, loyal to the company's old ways, was here on Ankoku Nui before us, and evolved with the aid of a Makuta named Scryptorek, who also created the Vahkshi to do their bidding." Jikanmu continued. "They obviously didn't get the message when the survivors of old Shinra renounced the use of Mako energy!" Tifa concluded. "So there's more than one Makuta now?" Onewa asked worriedly. "Way more than one, Onewa!" Jikanmu confirmed, "An entire species! But the Brotherhood of Makuta is the least of our concerns, for the time being. We must take down that reactor!" Cloud and Tifa, knowing full well the consequences of Shinra's exploitation of the Lifestream on their planet, couldn't agree more. But before they can march inside, the party was caught off guard by a blast of lightning that almost hit them, except Cloud deflected it with the blade of his weapon. Judging from the horizontal direction it came from, Cloud knew the bolt couldn't have come from the sky above. "The Genjuu is near!" Jikanmu said as he readied his weapon for combat. Ixion, the horse Genjuu of thunder showed itself, rearing up and bringing it's hooves down to release an electro-magnetic pulse across the ground. Cloud and Tifa got out of range, but Whenua and Onewa, being far more mechanical than biological like nearly every being from their world, were instantly paralyzed. As Ixion prepared to charge at the others, Cloud doublecasts Protectga and Shellga over himself, Tifa, and Jikanmu to tighten their defenses before using a Braver Slash on the Genjuu. Tifa and Jikanmu headed towards the Toa of Earth and Stone to heal them, but Ixion sees her, kicks Cloud aside and dashes after them. Jikanmu uses Slowga on the creature to buy Tifa more time and runs after Cloud to get him back up. "Tifa, help us!" Whenua groaned, being stuck in place with his brother until Tifa uses Esuna to cure their paralysis. "Much obliged!" Onewa thanked Tifa before turning his attention to Ixion, "Now where were we?" The Toa of Stone thrusts his weapon forward, using it as a chain-hook to wrap it around Ixion's neck and begin reining it in. Ixion resisted this maneuver, but before it could be the victor in this bout of tug-of-war, Jikanmu, after casting Haste on himself, jumped high into the air and brought his spear straight down unto Ixion, sticking it in the back of the beast. "Whoa!" an impressed Cloud said, "Cid's got nothing on this guy!" Jikanmu wrenched his spear around to try and try and bury it further into Ixion's body, but he couldn't. Instead, he knocks the Genjuu down on it's side and calls out for Whenua. "Right behind ya!" The Toa of Earth excitedly replied, and got out his drill-shovels as he made a beeline for the downed Ixion. Pointing his weapons downwards at the creature's side, Whenua activates their drilling function and plunges them both into Ixion. The Genjuu roared in agony, and sparks flew about as Whenua slowly began piercing the armor. He made sure not to be standing in front of Ixion's mighty legs as it kicked them around in pain, else he would have tripped and the battle would continue. Still, Jikanmu made doubly sure Whenua would get the job done quickly by casting Haste on him, speeding up his drills, and in a few short seconds, Ixion perished, and the elemental energy expelled from it's carcass flowed right into the lightning towers, making them fully operational again. "There!" The Toa of Earth breathed, "That's the end of that!" "This battle, anyway." Jikanmu told Whenua, "But our quest is far from over! Into the Reactor!" Chapter 3 Once inside the Mako Reactor, Cloud guided his group through the vast maze of machinery as they dismantled it's security systems and any Vahkshi they found roaming about. The layout of this reactor is very similar to the Sector 1 Reactor back in Midgar, which he helped the anti-Shinra group AVALANCHE destroy at least two years ago, except the path to the main generator was going upwards. That was just a practice run, compared to now, and despite their vastly accumulated experience since way back then, and having Whenua, Onewa, and Jikanmu watching their backs, Tifa and Cloud both knew they had to be ready for anything. When they reach the elevator, Jikanmu halts the group and goes in first to check for any enemies, and just as he thought, a black Vahkshi kicks down the ceiling hatch and intercepts the Toa, only to be swiftly destroyed and kicked out of the elevator, it's motionless husk sliding across the ground. "Ok, we're clear!" Jikanmu called out to his comrades, and they get inside, all facing the door when Jikanmu presses a button to take them up. "So what's the deal with these Mako Reactors, and how do you know so much about them?" Whenua asked Cloud. "I used to work for Shinra, as an infantryman, but that was a long time ago." Cloud told Whenua, "Mako is the lifeblood of the planet where Tifa and I came from, but Shinra kept sucking it out with these reactors." "They had no idea their actions were killing the planet, little by little!" Tifa added, "That's why Shinra needed to be stopped." Jikanmu shrugged his shoulders and made a subtle grunt as Tifa finished her sentence. When the elevator reached it's destination, a trio of Vahkshi gathered in front of the elevator door in anticipation of the intruders, but couldn't see them at first as they hid in the sides. The purple Vahkshi steps forward, and Tifa, who had been clinging to the ceiling, kicks it with both feet across the floor and proceeded to beat down on the black and white ones. When the purple Vahkshi was the only one left, it pushes Tifa to the floor and moves in for the kill, but she get's it's legs in a scissor lock and flips it down on it's side before getting back up before using her Final Heaven technique to destroy it utterly. Tifa did a light stretch before turning to the elevator and says, "Okay. Baddies are dead!" The guys come out and walk towards her. "Good work!" Jikanmu praised Tifa as she stuck her hand out to shake his, but he silently ignores her. Cloud does, however give her an affectionate pat on the back before the group goes up to the lower piping, and eventually climb past the upper piping into the data room. Here, they found an extensive archive of information pertaining to the older incarnation of Shinra and other related subjects including the Jenova Project and even the enigmatic Project G, which neither the Toa nor the humans ever knew about. "Much as I'd find the details of Project G intriguing, I'd rather we leave that entry alone." Jikanmu advises Cloud, who hesitantly complies after a brief pause of silence. Soon they would come up across some records in strange writing, possibly as a fail safe to protect sensitive information from being disclosed to the wrong people. "Onewa," Cloud asked, "any chance you can decipher this text?" "Do I look like a translator?" a somewhat annoyed Onewa retorted, "Nokama has that mask power. That's her job." "Mata Nui knows I wish we already found her by now!" Whenua added. Just past the data room, and along a single pathway lies the main generator. Jikanmu had prepared an explosive device to destroy the reactor, and sets it down before reversing the energy flow back into Ankoku Nui's Lifestream. "Good, now let me set the bomb." said Cloud. Jikanmu casually hands him the explosive and motions the others to get back. "You're not gonna start having strange visions and freaking out, will ya?" Onewa asked his spiky haired ally. "I don't think so," Tifa assured the Toa as Cloud got to work, "not that I'm worried." Yet they had to expect a Guard Scorpion or anything similar to take them from behind. Nothing came, though it doesn't rule out the likelihood of any Vahkshi try to stop them from escaping. Cloud finishes setting the timer on the bomb and tells the group, "This place is gonna blow in seven minutes, we gotta move fast!" A blue Vahkshi, a yellow Vahkshi, and a white Vahkshi all bust in to ensure the party remains trapped, but Whenua digs his hands into the underside of a section of the bridge and flips it over in front of him, crushing the enemy robots. "Another move I always wanted to try out!" Whenua boasted, jumping across the gap with Onewa, Tifa, Cloud, and then Jikanmu following suit. The Toa of Stone and Earth go ahead and make quick work of another group of Vahkshi, one of which manages to trip Onewa and push Whenua out of place on its death throes. "Hey, a little help here?" Onewa shouted, having fallen next to Whenua with his foot stuck in a piece of the piping. Tifa dislodges the obstruction, freeing Whenua. "Hey, thanks!" The Toa thanked her, and they continued down to the main staircase, only to be ambushed by more Vahkshi. "This is bad." Cloud says before unleashing his Meteorain ability on the enemies, killing them all quickly so the party can proceed on to the main entrance, where Whenua executes a clothesline maneuver to incapacitate an incoming Vahkshi, not bothering to finish it off, since it would be destroyed with the reactor anyway when it explodes. The door leading outside closes shut, but Whenua dashes at it with enough force to break it down, letting the others out in time for the reactor to go up in smoke. The group stood out in the open, staring at the trashed remains of the reactor from a distance. "That should keep the planet going," Cloud sighs. "At least for a little while longer." Tifa finished. "Now what do we do?" Onewa asked Jikanmu. "Now, we go to Do-Mura," Jikanmu told Onewa, "to meet up with the other Toa. I've been guiding them across the planet while you were trekking through Ta-Aka." "Really? They're still alive?" Onewa asked. "How do you even know that?" Whenua questioned Jikanmu. "The Mask of Time greatly accelerates my ability to get around on foot. Why do you think I was being so conservative with it's power?" said the Toa of Time. The dumbfounded Whenua shrugged his arms and sighed as if to say, "I dunno!" In any event, Do-Mura was just a short trip away now, and in time, the Toa Metru would be reunited, and Cloud and Tifa can go back home. Hours later, after the sun had set, Tifa and Cloud step outside the metallic structure they were staying at with the Toa for a special moment under the stars. "If there's one regret I have about this journey, if not everything we've been through by far," Tifa tells her best friend, "It's that I never got to express how I feel about you..." She kisses Cloud on the cheek, and he returns his feelings by hugging her so gently. "Thanks Tifa. It means a lot to me." Cloud says, and in minutes, Tifa rests her head on his shoulders as he sits down against the wall of the structure, closing his eyes and savoring the long, peaceful night as if it were meant to be their last time together. Allusions to Final Fantasy VII * Cid Highwind, and Sephiroth are mentioned ** Again, Jikanmu is compared to another "dragoon-class" playable character in the series, after having used an attack similar to one of Cid's limit breaks. * The circular area surrounding Ta-Aka's castle makes it slightly resemble Midgar before Meteorfall. * Cloud compares the devastation of Ta-Aka's villages to the Nibelheim Incident. * The sewer underneath Don Corneo's mansion is alluded to by Cloud in the dungeon cell. * The fight with the Efreet is probably an homage to the boss fight with Ifrit in Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII. * The raid on the last Mako Reactor in Ankoku Nui bears similarities to the first quest in Final Fantasy VII. ** The layout of this Reactor is similar to that of the Sector 1 Reactor, but with the path to the generator going upwards instead of down, and thus the lower piping area comes before the upper piping. ** Cloud's explanation of Mako and Mako Reactors to the Toa is similar to what Barret told Cloud. ** Onewa asking if Cloud is going to have strange visions while setting up the bomb, despite this not happening here, is not only a reference to when Cloud had flashbacks to the Nibelheim Incident, but also Vakama's own visions in Bionicle 2: Legends of Metru Nui. ** One of the participants gets their foot stuck and helped out by a player character. In FFVII, it was Jessie who gets helped by Cloud, whereas Bionic Fantasy does a complete gender swap of this scenario by having Tifa save Whenua. * The segment's final scene with Cloud and Tifa under the night sky is an allusion to their childhood flashback where Cloud revealed his plans to join SOLDIER, and/or possibly even the scene(s) of them under the Highwind shortly after the battle against Hojo in Midgar. * Inside the data room, Jikanmu briefly expresses interest in the files pertaining to "Project G", despite ultimately telling Cloud not to look them up. This is a reference to how Jikanmu is meant to have the same japanese voice as Genesis Rhapsodos. Trivia *This is the first segment where the Toa have already met the Final Fantasy characters and Jikanmu by the beginning of the first chapter. *Onewa asks who Sephiroth is, in the same way Pohatu asked what the Rahkshi are in Bionicle: Mask of Light. *The hazards and most of the layout of Ina-Kiiro are meant to be an homage to the Thunder Plains in Final Fantasy X. **In fact, the Al Bhed writing found in the data room further strengthens FFVII's (supposed) connection to FFX, as first brought up in the FFX-2 Ultimania, and then alluded to in Fire and Water. *Whenua starts using pro-wrestling moves on the Vahkshi. *The "wall-hugging" tactic suggested by Tifa, after Efreet is defeated, is actually used commonly in 2D JRPGs to find secret passages. *Jikanmu reveals the existence of the Brotherhood of Makuta to Whenua and Onewa. *If Bionic Fantasy gets made into a game or movie, the new Shinra organization would be called "Shinra-Nui" in the english voice track and "Dai-Shinra" in the japanese language, both those names meaning "Great Shinra". *Tifa's manner of destroying a purple Vahkshi early in the first chapter pays homage to Fist of the North Star, when many villains would explode shortly after having been their vital points struck Category:Stories